Bombers' first target was Boston's Fourth of July concert, sources say

Friday

May 3, 2013 at 12:01 AMMay 3, 2013 at 3:12 AM

The two accused marathon bombers originally planned to attack Boston's Fourth of July celebration this year. ABC News says Dzhokhar Tsarnaev told interrogators the brothers scrapped the plan when they learned to build functioning explosives much sooner than expected.

NewsCenter 5 has confirmed reports that the two accused marathon bombers originally planned to attack Boston's Fourth of July celebration this year.

The Hatch Shell and Esplanade sites along the Charles River welcome crowds in the hundreds of thousands for the event.

ABC News says Dzhokhar Tsarnaev told interrogators the brothers scrapped the plan when they learned to build functioning explosives much sooner than expected.

Federal court documents say as early as March, the younger Tsarnaev told close friends that he knew how to make a bomb.

NewsCenter 5 also confirmed that federal authorities believe the pressure cooker explosives used to maim and kill on Boylston Street were constructed at Tamerlan Tsarnaev's Cambridge apartment.

Investigators may also learn more from Tameralan Tsarnaev's wife who received a phone call from her husband days after the attack.

The explosions killed three people and injured more than 260 others.

Agents say three of the Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's friends removed a backpack containing bomb making components and a laptop from the captured suspect's UMass Dartmouth dorm room.

The emptied fireworks and backpack were recovered from a landfill.

Sources tell NewsCenter 5 that agents recovered the laptop as well, ossibly a critical piece of evidence. It was given to them by one of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's friends.

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